This invention relates to an arc-resistant structure of a connector in which a connector-disengaging speed is increased, utilizing a resilient force.
Description will be made, taking a vehicle as an example.
When a voltage of a vehicle power source is set to a value higher than a voltage of the current vehicle power source, wires, used in the electric wiring, can be reduced in diameter since a load current decreases. As a result, the weight of a wire harness can be reduced, and besides various advantages, including the improved efficiency of use of the power source, can be expected. Therefore, the possibility of increasing the vehicle power source voltage from the current value of DC 12V (effective voltage: 14V) to a higher value of DC 36V (effective voltage: 42V) has been studied.
The following problem is encountered with an electrically-connecting connector when the vehicle power source voltage is increased from the current value of DC 12V to the higher value of DC 36V. Namely, when the connector is inserted and disengaged in a voltage-applied condition (in the ON-state of a power system), an arc, which is larger in energy than that produced by the current vehicle power source, occurs, and as a result there arises a problem that terminals are broken by this arc.
There has been a technical report of countermeasures for such problem, in which magnets are provided respectively on opposite sides of a connector housing of a connector, and the adverse effects of an arc are lessened, utilizing the magnetic force of the magnets. However, this method has problems such as the greatly-increased cost, the increased size and the increased weight. And besides, in the case of a multi-pole connector, it is doubtful that the desired effect is obtained at those regions remote from the magnets.
The inventor of the present invention has grasped the following facts through experiments and so on. The first fact is that an arc is produced even with a small current when a voltage becomes high as will be appreciated from a graph of FIG. 9. The second fact is that an arc is liable to be produced at the time of disengagement of a connector. The third fact is that the lower the speed (test speed) of disengagement of the connector is, the larger the adverse effects (damage) become (since the duration of an arc discharge is increased) as will be appreciated from a graph of FIG. 10.
This invention has been made under the above circumstances, and an object of the invention is to provide an arc-resistant structure of a connector which can minimize adverse effects of an arc.
In order to solve the aforesaid object, the invention is characterized by having the following arrangement.
(1) An arc-resistant structure comprising a high-speed connector-disengaging unit, provided on one of male and female connectors which are to be fitted together, for increasing a speed of disengagement of the male and female connectors from each other by utilizing a resilient force produced by a resilient deformation.
(2) The arc-resistant structure according to (1), wherein the resilient force is not produced during the connector fitting operation.
(3) An arc-resistant structure comprising:
a connector housing provided on one of male and female connectors which are to be fitted together;
a slider for sliding relative to the connector housing in a connector disengaging direction during a connector disengaging operation; and
a resilient member which is interposed between the connector housing and the slider and is resiliently deformed to produce a resilient force when the slider is slid.
(4) The arc-resistant structure according to (3), wherein the resilient force is not produced during a connector fitting operation.
(5) The arc-resistant structure according to (3), wherein
the connector housing includes a housing projecting portion,
the slider includes first and second slider projecting portions between which the resilient member is interposed,
one end of the resilient member is fixed to the housing projecting portion and the other end of the resilient member is fixed to the first slider projecting portion, and
the second slider projecting portion is adapted to be brought in contact with the housing projecting portion.
(6) The arc-resistant structure according to (5), wherein
the second slider projecting portion is brought in contact with the housing projecting portion during a connector fitting operation, and is separated from the housing projecting portion during the connector disengaging operation.